Rent Freedom Day 2018

We’ve researched average rents and earnings across the UK, to bring you Rent Freedom Day: the day of the year when you earn enough to pay off your annual rent.

What is Rent Freedom Day?

Until Rent Freedom Day, all the money the average renter earns is going towards their rent for the year.

Rent Freedom Day is the day on which the average renter earns enough money to pay their annual rent, assuming one person renting a one-bed property. It is an indication of the affordability of renting in a given area.

UK & Regional Rent Freedom Day Dates

UK: 30th June

London: 14th September

UK (excl. London) 21st April

The results are pretty depressing. A UK tenant earning the average income and paying the average rent for a one-bed property has to wait until 30th June to earn enough take-home pay to cover their rent.

That means 50% of the average renter’s take-home pay goes to rent, unless they decide to move in with their partner, or share a property with other households.

It is Londoners who have longest to wait before earning their annual rent, taking until the 14th September to overcome their rental costs. If we exclude London, then Rent Freedom Day for the rest of the UK comes right down to 21st April.

North/South Divide

Elsewhere, Southern English cities performed worse than their Northern counterparts, with Southampton, Bristol and Oxford all in the bottom five.

In Scotland, tenants in Edinburgh have to wait until 1st June to be free from rental costs. Renters in Cardiff have it slightly better, seeing Rent Freedom Day on 16th May.

Rural areas and cities in the North have the most affordable rent. Renters in rural areas like Northumberland, Shropshire and Lincolnshire earn their annual rent by mid-April. Meanwhile, the most affordable place to rent is Bradford, where Rent Freedom Day is 5th April.

Ranking

Location

Rent Freedom Day

Average Monthly Rent (£)

Average Annual Post-Tax Income (£)

1

Bradford

05-Apr

375.05

17,233

2

Northumberland

06-Apr

389.29

17,848

3

Lincolnshire

11-Apr

393.33

17,065

4

Sunderland

17-Apr

430.99

17,600

5

Shropshire & Mid Wales

19-Apr

439.59

17,599

6

Liverpool

20-Apr

455.31

18,078

7

Newcastle

29-Apr

477.67

17,618

8

Leeds

02-May

530.36

19,079

9

Sheffield

02-May

500.53

17,986

10

Devon

03-May

475.40

16,918

11

Norfolk

07-May

499.76

17,282

12

Leicester

15-May

503.66

16,338

13

Cardiff

16-May

592.41

19,146

14

Nottingham

20-May

515.66

16,154

15

Manchester

20-May

560.11

17,505

16

Birmingham

22-May

591.71

18,198

17

Glasgow

26-May

610.87

18,286

18

Southampton

01-Jun

639.55

18,403

19

Edinburgh

01-Jun

702.56

20,199

20

Bristol

25-Jun

772.09

19,231

21

Oxford

27-Jul

994.97

20,988

22

Central London

10-Sep

1413.52

24,496

23

London

14-Sep

1348.94

23,028

Notes on the Data

This data uses the average personal income by area as supplied by the ONS. After-tax salary is approximate and assumes no student loans and age<69. Daily income is per calendar day of the year, not working/week day. Take-home pay after tax is calculated by the Salary Calculator.

It uses OpenRent’s average rental data for one-bed properties (excluding studios and rooms in shared accommodation).

It should be noted that renters are much more likely to be in the bottom two income quintiles than mortgagers or owner occupiers. Therefore, the ‘real’ Rent Freedom Day could be later than these results show.